uestion: I am pushing 73
and my house is underwater.
I have a first loan of
about $140,000 and a second loan of about $18,000 with a
7.85 percent interest rate. My second loan has a balloon payment
coming due soon. I was lied to about
this loan having a balloon payment.
Neither of my current lenders will
work with me to refinance the loans,
and I can’t find another lender to
help either. I always pay on time,
have never paid late and have great
credit. I paid about $200,000 for the
home, and it’s now worth about
$135,000.
I’m thinking of walking out and
renting to cut down on monthly expenses. All of these thoughts bring a
moral issue to me, and it goes
against what I know is right.
I just want a lower interest rate,
and it amazes me that no one will
help me. It seems illogical and unfair
to me that the only way I can get
help is to stop paying on my mortgage. What is the worst thing that
will happen if I give it back to them
since they will not work with me? I
have been told by several lenders to
stop paying my mortgage, bank the
savings and walk out to help myself.
Credit is not my major concern at
this point in my life. Any other concerns I should be aware of if I just
walk out? I’m not sure I can do it
and live with myself, but I feel I have
to protect myself from these people.
Answer: I’ve answered this question in the past, but your question
has an interesting twist to it. It appears you can afford your mortgage
payments but did not know the
promissory note on your second
mortgage has a balloon payment.
A balloon payment refers to a loan
that comes due at some time after
five or seven years, and at that time
you must repay the entire amount
that is still owed on the loan. With a
customary home mortgage, you have
that loan for 15 or 30 years and the
payments you make over the length
of the term result in a zero balance
at the end of the loan term.
Obviously, we don’t know the circumstances of how you obtained
your loan or what type of a loan you
were getting — or thought you were
getting. However, in just about all
the cases we’ve seen, the borrower is
given loan documents to sign at the
closing and has the opportunity to
review those documents.
While most borrowers don’t read
all of the terms and conditions of the
loan documents, all of them should.
If you read your documents carefully, you’d see the interest rate for
the loan, how it works, whether the
rate can change, whether payments
can increase and by how much, when
the loan is due, whether you will
have to make monthly payments to
the lender for real estate taxes and
insurance, and what the costs are to
obtain the loan.
■ See GLINK/Page E3

Photos courtesy Oakwood Homes

The Turner floor plan in the New Beginnings II Collection at Thompson River Ranch.

Amazing Opportunity
PAID ADVERTORIAL

O

akwood Homes is having another great year in Thompson River Ranch; once again
being the top selling community
across all of Northern Colorado.
While the subdivision has a long way
to go until it’s fully built out, Oakwood Homes is down to 30 home
sites available for the affordable New
Beginnings II Collection homes. This
includes the Gilpin, Emery and Turner floor plans, which have been some
of the most popular choices in the
73 sales so far this year.
Starting with 209 of these home
sites, Oakwood Homes is down to
roughly 30 left of this size. Mike
Welty, Community Manager at
Thompson River Ranch, explains
that the current prices won’t last
long.
“We’re able to sell that Collection
for a great price on those home
sites, but that will go away once
those lots have been sold.”
At the current rate of sales, they
won’t be available too much longer.
However, they still have plenty of
home sites for the New Beginnings 1
and Carson Collections to last quite
some time.
With many homebuyers trying to
be in a new home before the end of
the year, their inventory homes are
in high demand.
“We’re constantly advertising a
quick move-in Gilpin model for sale,
but it’s never the same Gilpin,”
explains Welty. “The home is just a
great value so it always sells quickly,

Kitchen and dining area of the Turner floor plan.
and we start building a new one for
the next buyer that needs a quick
move-in home.”
That’s exactly what they have
going on right now with another
Gilpin home available for those
homebuyers looking for a quick
move. For $200,190, it features
three bedrooms plus a bonus room
and two-and-a-half baths and over
1,531 finished square feet. Additionally, it includes a full basement, air
conditioning, and five-piece master
bathroom while still allowing you to

make personal selections at
Oakwood’s Design Center since
the home will be finished in
November.
Oakwood Homes realizes not
everyone has the option to wait for a
personalized home to be built, so
they try to have a couple homes on
hand for anyone that needs a home
fast. This time last month they
had four quick move-in homes
available in Thompson River Ranch;
currently they only have the one
Gilpin.

Buying a home that needs work?
Call the experts in FHA 203(k)
renovation financing.
An FHA 203(k) mortgage allows you to finance both your home
purchase and renovation with a single loan. Call now to learn more.
Vivian DeVoe, VP Mortgage Banker, NMLS#269876, 970-227-4702
Loans and rates subject to credit approval. Owner-occupied residences only. FHA conditions and restrictions apply.

Mike Welty and Dwayne Montoya
will be on hand this weekend for any
questions or additional information;
contact them at 970-669-9801. Models will be open to view from 10 a.m.6 p.m. To get there, take Thompson
Parkway south from U.S. Highway
34, then head west along Ronald
Reagan Blvd. to the frontage road.
Follow that south and you can’t miss
the entrance to the community. You
can find more information about
Thompson River Ranch at
www.OakwoodHomesCO.com.

1/4 mile west of Wilson on 14th
Street/SW/HWY 402 to the Dakota
Glen Subdivision

12:00-4:00 PM

ERA Herman Group
NoCo/Glen Marketing

970-663-4522

$342,000

NW Loveland

1/4 mile west of Wilson on 14th
Street/SW/HWY 402 to the Dakota
Glen Subdivision

12:00-4:00 PM

ERA Herman Group
NoCo/Glen Marketing

970-663-4522

$342,000

NW Loveland

3464 Peruvian Torch

12:00-4:00 PM

ERA Herman Group
NoCo/Glen Marketing

970-663-4522

$342,000

NW Loveland

3464 Peruvian Torch

12:00-4:00 PM

ERA Herman Group
NoCo/Glen Marketing

970-663-4522

$347,900

Loveland

920 Norway Maple

1-3 PM

The Group Inc. Real
Estate, Rich Gardiner

970-227-0964

$347,900

Loveland

920 Norway Maple

1-3 PM

The Group Inc. Real
Estate, Rich Gardiner

970-227-0964

$369,963

Fort Collins

1031 Hinsdale Drive

12-4 PM

The Group Inc. Real
Estate, Keith Huntsman

970-227-2779

Starting in
the $400’s

Loveland

288 Reservoir Drive

1-4 PM

Premier Lifestyle Realty, 970-613-4400
John Mathey

$625,000

NE Loveland

3015 Challenger Point Drive

12-2 PM

RE/MAX Alliance-South,
Jennifer Kelly

970-581-9005

$509,900

NE Loveland

2960 Laguna Ct.

12-2 PM

RE/MAX Alliance-South,
Coleen Ligotke

970-690-1732

To add a listing or speak to an advertising representative, call Dan Grassmeyer at 970-635-3615 or
email: dgrassmeyer@reporter-herald.com. Realtors can join our on-line realtor community at:
http://www.reporterherald2.com/YourNorthernColoradoHome/_featured/featured_newclient.asp

For details about these open houses, see the ads in this section. For additional open house
listings, please check the “Real Estate Classiﬁeds” section of this publication. This guide is
brought to you by the Daily Reporter-Herald, local real estate agents and area builders.

WWW.HOMEANDREALTYGUIDE.COM •CLICK ON

OPEN HOUSE MAPS

Saturday Reporter-Herald October 1, 2011 E3

Regional Snapshot for Loveland/Berthoud Residential

Mortgage rate update

May

June

July

Active Listings
Previous Year Active Listings

1004
1117

973
1101

938
1092

Sold Listings

126

155

134

$200,000
$214,500

$220,000
$234,000

Average Days on the Market
Previous Year ADOM

107
118

121
121

103
122

Year to Date Listings Sold
Previous Year YTD Listing Sold

521
559

676
728

810
839

Median Sales Price
Previous Year Median

30-year fixed

$208,958
$238,000

This week Last week Trend

4.07%

4.00%

15-year fixed

3.36%

3.30%

5/1 ARM

3.01%

2.93%

Home & Real Estate is produced
every Saturday by the
Loveland Reporter-Herald.

Stunning home backing to open space!
Wonderful views of the foothills with
greenbelt, walking/biking trails, and privacy. This lovely 4 bed/4 bath home has
a main-floor office/study
and hardwood floors.
$350,000 | MLS #665906

Space and sunshine!! And only steps away
from your back door to water. A lot of livin’
to do and lots of room for it in this lovely
2-story home. Kitchen highlights granite
counters/maple cabinets.
$390,000 | MLS #661627

These basic facts, which are
all laid out in the first few
pages of the loan documents,
should be the minimum information that a borrower should
understand.
If you were lied to on this
issue or the documents you
signed are not the documents
that were recorded for your
loan, you should seek legal
counsel on that issue.
Now on the issue of walking
away from the loan, that seems
to be a loaded question these
days. The term people are using for walking away from their
homes and mortgages is
“strategic default.”
Some readers take exception
to the idea that you can walk
away from a mortgage obligation. Others believe a mortgage is merely a contractual
obligation to make payments,
and if a borrower decides to
stop making those payments,
then the only issue is the consequences of the default as
spelled out in the contract.
The moral question of making or not making the payments is a personal one, and
you will have to make that decision on your own. A contract
is a legal document, not a
moral one. Your actions may
affect other people in your
neighborhood. If you walk
away, you force the lender to
foreclose on your home and affect the home values of others
in your neighborhood.
While your obligation to
make your payments under the
mortgage is a legal one, and a
lender can’t go after you for
the moral issues involved, only
you can deal with the moral issue and how it affects you.
It’s interesting that you
didn’t indicate that you
couldn’t make your payments
but rather that you wanted a
lower payment and wanted one
mortgage rather than two.
Given the value of your
home, it’s understandable why
lenders are unwilling to give
you a new loan. While for some
years lenders were willing to
overlook just about everything
in a loan application, most today have gone the other way.
Lenders will scrutinize every
detail of an applicant’s finances, credit history and
credit score. Lenders will also
make sure they have a valid appraisal for the property being
financed. And, finally, lenders
will seek to give their best loan
terms to borrowers with the
best credit and those who borrow at most 80 percent of the
appraised value of the home.
While you may feel these
terms are unfair to you, the financial system is still trying to
correct itself from the imbalances of the last 10 years.
If you end up walking away
from your home and the obligations you have to repay your
loans, your credit history will
take quite a big hit, your credit
score will drop substantially,
and, depending on where you
live, your lenders may have the
ability to sue you and attempt
to collect any amounts you
might still owe them after they
foreclose on your home and
sell it to satisfy whatever
portion of the debt they can.
In addition, you may find
that no lender will give you a
loan for the purchase of a
home for the next five years or
so. But if you don’t need good
credit, then that won’t matter.
Question: Last September I
tried to refinance my home
with my lender. I had lost my
current job and started running a small landscape business I previously had. The
agent working with my lender
told me about a loan product
with no income verification.
There was a problem with
the appraisal and the loan officer indicated there would be
no problem, as he could proceed based on the “valuation”
of the property and the income
I received from the rental por-

tion of my home. Any ideas
how I can refinance?
Answer: Based on the very
little specific information in
your letter, it’s going to be
hard for you to find a lender to
refinance your home. I’m not
sure what loan “program” your
lender is trying to get for you.
You should know that “no income verification” loans died a
couple of years back with the
bursting of the housing bubble.
The only no-appraisal loan
product we know of is for borrowers with FHA or VA loans.
The lender is empowered to do
a streamline refinance for FHA
or VA loans, which consists of
lowering the interest rate.
If you don’t have an FHA or
VA loan, you’ll have a tougher
time. It appears that the person you spoke to felt that your
income was not sufficient to
qualify you for a loan. He or
she might have thought that
you could qualify for a loan at a
higher interest rate with a
lender that would not “look” at
your income. However, I would
be quite surprised if a lender
today would give you a loan
without looking at your income in great detail.
As you have lost your job and
are now working in your own
business, it won’t be easy to
find a lender to overlook your
job situation. If you are self-employed, lenders will want to see
a two-year track history of your
self-employment to get a good
feel as to whether you will be
able to make your monthly payments under the new loan.
I suspect that any such new
loan will not be much better
than your current loan once
you review the terms offered by
your new lender. If you want to
refinance your loan because it’s
due to become a variable rate
loan after five or seven years of
being a fixed rate loan, you
might want to review your loan
documents again.
Most loans taken out five
years ago were tied to an index
rate. Most of those index rates
have come down drastically.
You may find that your monthly
mortgage payment will go
down once your loan adjusts
with the new index. If your rate
does go down, you may want to
wait a year or so, have your income in your new business stabilize, and then apply to refinance your loan to lock in a
rate for years to come.
However, if your original loan
was locked in at a low payment
and is soon going to readjust,
making your payment skyrocket, you might want to call your
existing lender and see if they
have any loan modification
plans that meet your needs.
Keep in mind that most people
who apply for loan modifications end up being denied.
One final note: If your
home’s value has gone down
significantly, you probably
won’t find a lender willing to
give you a new loan unless you
have cash to pay down the current loan balance.
For example, if you bought
your home for $200,000 and
had a loan for $160,000, and
now your home is worth
$150,000, most lenders won’t
want to give you $160,000
again. They will base any new
loan on the home’s current value and will give you the best
deal at 80 percent of the
home’s value or a new loan at
$120,000. That would mean
you’d have to pay down your
debt by about $40,000.
Since most borrowers don’t
have that kind of cash lying
around, it makes it quite hard
to refinance a loan under those
circumstances. Even though
some loan modification plans
allow you to refinance even if
your home value has gone
down a bit, those plans only
work if your new loan is going
to be at most 125 percent of
your home’s value on the date
you refinance.
If you fall into this category
and your loan is owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, you
might be in luck. Talk to your
loan servicer and see if they
can provide you with details.

CSU Gardening Tips
Boxelder bugs, home
invaders are common
in the fall season
MITZI DAVIS
CSU EXTENSION
• Home invaders — Look for them in
the fall. The most common is the black and
red boxelder bug, and becoming more common, the brown western conifer seed bug.
Both are harmless and you can vacuum them
up if you find them on your south and west
window sills or anywhere that’s warm and
sunny.
Cluster flies, which develop as a parasite of
earthworms, are looking for ways to spend
winter inside — usually in walls. European paper wasps will be abandoning their nests now
and will never use them again. The future
queens seek protection during the winter and
often find their way into your home. Caulk
cracks or openings into your house to keep

insects from entering.
• Plant garlic in a corner of your garden
to harvest next spring. Separate the bulbs
into cloves. Enrich the soil with organic
matter like compost or well aged manure.
They need full sun and well-draining soil.
Plant with the pointed end up, about 1 inch
deep and 4 inches apart. They’ll be ready to
harvest next spring when the foliage dies
down.
• Fall is also the time to plant spring-flowering bulbs. If you have trouble with deer eating
all your tulips, plant daffodils. The deer tend
to avoid them. Check the nurseries, garden
centers and catalogs for early, mid-season and
late-blooming varieties to extend the bloom
time. Other bulbs that are deer “resistant” include Dutch iris, grape hyacinth, scilla and
puschkinia.
Mitzi Davis has received training through
Colorado State University Extension's Master
Gardener program and is a Master Gardener
volunteer for Larimer County. For more
information about CSU Extension, Larimer
County, call 970-498-6000 or visit
www.larimer.org/ext.

www.MeganWachtman.8z.com
www.cohomeﬁnder.com
A better way to buy and sell a home in Colorado!

Saturday Reporter-Herald October 1, 2011 E5

On the

Surface
Top counters:
Granite sharing
the spotlight
with glass,
stone and more

production builder that moved
this market.”
And moved some homeowners to other choices that are
new and appealing to green
consumers, such as engineered quartz, as well as some
that have been around for
centuries, like soapstone or
marble.
MARY MACVEAN
“I have not done a single
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
granite countertop in 10
years,” said Dan Campbell, a
o anyone reading the
Los Angeles contractor who
real estate ads in recent specializes in kitchen design
years, it could seem that and remodels. “Maybe because
granite was the only material
it’s so overused. It all blends
worth using for a kitchen
together.”
counter, as important as
Troy Adams also hasn’t used
updated electrical or a reliable much granite in the high-end
roof.
kitchens he designs, though
Granite isn’t going anyhe acknowledged there are
where. But many designers
many beautiful granite slabs
and homeowners are turning
available. Improvements to
to glass, manufactured stone,
other materials, such as stainmetal and other materials to
less steel with fine patterns
create counters that work for
that resist fingerprints, have
people who actually cook as
made alternatives more popuwell for those who see the
lar, Adams said.
kitchen as a decorative accesOne of the materials he likes
sory.
to use is lava stone, which is
“What consumers now have quarried from a volcano in
seen is there is kind of this
France, enameled and then
granite fatigue. Everyone has
fired at high temperatures. It’s
granite,” said Ed Rogers, the
stain-, heat- and scratch-resisdirector of business developtant, and it has a sort of crackment at CaesarStone US,
ly surface that can be made in
based in Van Nuys, Calif.
intense colors. It’s also three
CaesarStone and other
to four times as costly as many
brands, including Silestone,
granites, Adams said.
sell engineered quartz, a
Whether the kitchen
durable product made from
counter is just a spot to toss
more than 90 percent crushed the keys and mail, the place
quartz mixed with a resin.
for breakfast around an island,
Manufacturers are producthe lab for a chili cook-off ening dozens of colors of engitry or the respite for sitting
neered quartz, some of them
alone with a glass of pinot gritrying to replicate the look of
gio, the kitchen counter is inother stones or concrete, at
evitably a focal point of what’s
prices comparable to those of
become the center of many
midlevel granites. Both a
homes.
virtue and a drawback is its
Adams said he builds his
consistency — no fossils or
palette around the aspect of
natural quirks, though that
the kitchen with the most surcould change too as compaface area, so a large, dramatic
nies work to mimic the natural island might be the place to
variations of marble or add a
start.
leathery surface texture.
In sophisticated, high-end
Glass counters too are shin- kitchens, an island might be
ing. Lighted from below, they
topped with one material, the
can add an appealing glow to a sink and cooking area in ankitchen. Buyers also like the
other. In his own kitchen,
hygienic qualities of glass in
Adams combined lava stone,
these days of the hand sanitiz- stainless steel and glass.
er.
That doesn’t mean the old
Granite had been “reserved standbys, including solid surfor the ultra high end,” but
faces such as Corian, are gone
now it’s available in big box
from the market — particularhome stores, Rogers said. “It
ly in budget-minded kitchen
plans. Wood — often used for
was the home center and the

T

Laminate countertop swatch

Marble countertops
cutting blocks or other inserts
to countertops — also can
work for counters, whether in
a farmhouse kitchen in the
city or a sleek contemporary
space.
Although it still represents
a small share of overall sales,
engineered quartz has been
the fastest-growing category
in the last five or six years,
CaesarStone’s Rogers said.
CaesarStone was the first engineered stone, made in 1987,
said Arik Tendler, president of
CaesarStone US. It was, and
still is, made in Israel, where
he grew up to become a stone
fabricator.
When he was first approached by a salesman with
engineered quartz, his reaction was: “Do me a favor. I’m a
second-generation stone guy.
Have some coffee and get out
of here.”
Obviously, he changed his
opinion over time. In Southern
California, he went door to
door to introduce his company
starting in 1999.
Campbell said he likes the
seamless counter front possible with engineered quartz.
“No one wants to see the manufacturing of anything if you
can avoid it,” he said.
Many companies also are
working to make their products — natural and manufactured — as eco-friendly as possible. Consumers who care
might check a product for its
percentage of recycled materials, which varies considerably,
or the conditions of its mining.
Cosentino reports that its
Eco line is made of 75 percent
post-consumer or post-industrial materials, including mirrors, glass, stone scraps and
porcelain. Other counters are
being made from recycled
glass or recycled paper sealed
with wax.
“Granite is going to stay as
long as they keep on digging,”
said Oren Osovski, an L.A. contractor and interior designer,
noting that the range in appearance can provide a look
that feels unique. “If you want
something beautiful that only
you have, you have to have
granite or marble.”

works for you: The toughest
part of the kitchen counter
decision may be figuring out
what you care about most.
Durability? A unique look?
Color? Price? Here’s a look at
some of the most common
options, with an assessment of
their quality from designers,
manufacturers and the website
www.kitchen.com.

MISSION: KITCHEN

LAMINATES

CONCRETE
Pros: Modern, industrial
look. Can be made in any
shape and in a variety of
colors.
Cons: Can stain and crack,
though that also may be an
appeal. Relatively expensive.
May need a sealer and wax
applied periodically to protect
against staining.

GRANITE
Pros: Huge range of colors
and prices. Durable. Stain- and
heat-resistant, though some
sealers commonly used to
combat its porous qualities
can be damaged by excessive
heat.
Cons: Some designers say it
has become overused.

patterns and finishes. Budgetfriendly. Easy to maintain.
Cons: Chips can be difficult
to repair.

ENGINEERED QUARTZ
Pros: Extremely tough.
Dozens of colors and patterns.
Easy to clean. Consistent color
and detail. Many manufacturers, including CaesarStone,
Silestone, Cambria. Considered more sustainable, as remnants often can be recycled.
Cons: Lacks unique
colorations and details found
in marble or granite.

WOOD
Pros: Can be used as a
chopping board.
Cons: Shows knife marks.
Susceptible to water damage.
Requires periodic re-oiling.

OTHER NATURAL STONE
Pros: Slate, soapstone,
quartzite, lava stone and others can provide a variety of
looks. Soapstone gives a traditional appeal, while lava stone
is as modern as can be. Some
can be made into sinks as well.
Cons: Depending on the
rarity, it can be expensive.

SOLID SURFACES

STAINLESS STEEL
Pros: Durable. Stain-resistant. Looks like a professional
kitchen. Other metals, such as
zinc and copper, lend an unusual appearance that will
change over time.
Cons: Can show fingerprints
and scratch.

Pros: Products such as Corian come in a variety of shapes,
colors and finishes. Nonporous, low-maintenance. Can
be made into a seamless piece.
Cons: Can be stained or
scratched, though marks can
be repaired, sometimes with
just an abrasive cleaner.

TILE
Pros: Budget-friendly.
Unlimited color and pattern
choices. Durable, heat- and
stain-resistant.
Cons: Grout can stain and
be tough to clean. Not a
smooth surface for some
cooking tasks.

GLASS
Pros: Looks new and modern. Can be made in many
colors, patterns and shapes.
Translucent qualities enable
natural light to pass through.
Nonporous, heat-resistant,
easy to clean. Can be made
from recycled glass.
Cons: Shows fingerprints.
Can crack or break.

MARBLE
Pros: Classic looks. Sometimes has translucent quality.
Great for making and rolling
pastry dough because it’s cool
to the touch.
Cons: Can stain.

Choosing a material that

Wood countertop

Pros: Huge range of colors,

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2821 Logan Drive, Loveland Professionally remodeled 4bd
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Saturday Reporter-Herald October 1, 2011

H&RE Front Range Gardening

Perennial
Onions

growing season, and you’ll be
rewarded with sweet, delectable
bulbs.
Other alliums for fall planting
are shallots and garlic, staples
for any kitchen garden. Shallots
are perennials that create clusare new to me, so what was pur- ters of bulbs around the mother
chased at the silent auction was bulb. Treat them like you
not just a basket, it is an adven- would the potato onions, fertilizing shallots once in spring
ture.
with an all-purpose fertilizer
Yellow potato onions, also
before the sprouts are 6-inches
known as multipliers, grow in
tall.
clumps of onions from one
CAROL O'MEARA
Garlic thrives in Colorado,
planted bulb. Plant them in fall,
CSU EXTENSION
until mid-October, and they pro- but if you want to grow your
own, avoid grocery store garlic,
duce three to five onions each,
giving you a big crop for a small which might be treated with a
iscovery is an enjoyable
growth inhibitor. Softneck garinvestment. Eat the larger
past time for a curious
lic (Allium sativum var sativum)
gardener. With each new bulbs, but save some for resquash, flower or shrub, lessons planting; you’ll have a perennial has a soft, flexible stem at the
supply of onions for your gartop of the bulb that makes it
in life as well as gardening are
den. Other multiplier onions
the choice for braiding into
learned each year. During a
silent auction a few weeks ago, I create clusters of small bulbs at ropes and necklaces. Commonly
sold in grocery stores, they grow
discovered the joy of new plants the top of their stems and are
known as top setting onions,
readily.
while my spouse learned that
such as Egyptian, or walking
Hardneck garlic (Allium
it’s not safe to take me to a
onions.
silent auction.
sativum var ophioscorodon) proSoil preparation is the key to
duces a curled, flowering stem,
The basket was filled with supsuccess, as potato onions don’t called a scape, that eventually
plies for seed saving, so I
like heavy, wet ground. Amend
turns woody. Rich with flavor,
camped out near it in order to
outbid anyone else who wanted the planting area with plenty of they have fewer, but larger,
compost or peat moss to keep
it. Swooping in after the other
easy-to-peel cloves. Use hardthe soil well drained. Dig the
bidders left, I counterbid each
necks early; they don’t store as
planting hole 2 to 3 inches
entry until it was just me and
long.
deep, sprinkle a teaspoon of
one other person, a stubborn
Plant now, while we still have
bonemeal into the hole beneath four to six weeks before the
woman named Connie. As the
price rose, my spouse wondered the bulb, then pop in the onions ground freezes, in a sunny spot
6-inches apart.
if we couldn’t simply buy the
with well-drained soil. Plant only
items for less.
Mulch with a 3-inch layer of
the largest cloves, saving the
straw for winter. In spring,
“Yes I could, but this is for
smaller ones for eating. Push
charity; we’re helping people,” I clearing away the mulch from
cloves root end down, 1-to 2said, glaring at the back of Con- around the onions is a must,
inches into the soil, about
but leave the mulch in place
nie’s head as she sidled up to
6-inches apart.
between rows to
the clipboard to log another
bid. The back and forth contin- help conserve
water. Keep the
ued until I eventually secured
Carol O’Meara is with
the basket for a price that
bulb from becomCSU Extension in
made the charity organizers
ing elongated by
Boulder County.
delirious.
scraping away a bit
Contact her at
It was worth it, for within the of soil until there is
303-678-6238 or
only one-inch of soil
basket was treasure: A paper
comeara@co
above the bulb.
wrapped bundle of yellow
.boulder.co.us.
Make sure the
potato onions, small, golden
onions never dry
orbs waiting to be put in the
Front Range Gardening
out during the
ground. The perennial onions

Multiply your
yield with yellow
potato onions

D

Fall planting is encouraged
PATRICK MILLER
CSU EXTENSION

even in the winter. Mulching and proper
watering will greatly improve the likelihood of plant success in the following
months and years. More information
uestion: I see many greenhouses regarding tree planting, fall and winter
and nurseries selling trees and
watering and mulching is provided by
shrubs at reduced prices. Would
Colorado State University Extension from
this be a good time to purchase and
www.ext.colostate.edu and the Colorado
plant?
Master Gardener website at
Answer: Absolutely. Fall and spring may www.cmg.colostate.edu:
be the best time to plant nursery items
• Fall and Winter Watering, #7.211:
such as deciduous trees and shrubs. It is
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/Garadvised to plant evergreen trees and
den/07211.html
shrubs in spring or summer, because
• Mulches for Home Grounds, #7.214:
their foliage continues to lose water durhttp://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/Garing winter months and desiccation is
more probable. If you plan to plant in the den/07214.html
• The Science of Planting Trees, #633:
fall, be sure to finish before the end of
http://cmg.colostate.edu/gardenOctober, to increase the chances of your
plant(s) becoming established. One bene- notes/633.pdf
Patrick Miller has received training
fit of Colorado’s sunny days is that soils
through Colorado State University Extenstay warm and usually don’t freeze until
sion's Master Gardener program and is a
December or later. The warm soils will
Master Gardener volunteer for Larimer
help plants form new roots for establishCounty. For more information about CSU
ment.
Extension, Larimer County, call 970-498Be sure to water new plantings thoroughly and check soil moisture often,
6000 or visit www.larimer.org/ext.

Q

Stinky house will foul sales prospects
MARCIE GEFFNER
BANKRATE.COM

and development at ServiceMaster
Clean, which does major cleanups
and post-disaster restorations for
commercial and residential properHomebuyers don’t want houses
ties.
that stink. Sellers must identify and
“There is no ’odor meter,’” Gupta
remediate odors that make prospecsaid. “People get used to the odor of
tive purchasers hold their noses and
their house and may not notice that
run for the exits.
something is not pleasant.”
A buyer’s market is a tough chalThe best way to find out whether a
lenge for sellers, said Patti Ketcham,
house smells OK is to “ask someone
owner of Ketcham Realty Group in
who doesn’t live there to come inside
Tallahassee, Fla.
and give an opinion,” Gupta said.
“If you’re selling,” she said, “your
The obvious “someone” would be
house has to look a little better, smell
the real estate broker hired to sell the
a little better and be priced a little
better than the other houses the buy- home. But not all brokers will point
out that a house smells bad, even if
er will look at that same day.”
they’re willing to offer other helpful
Unfortunately, it’s not always easy
suggestions.
for sellers to identify familiar smells
Ketcham offers to pass along any
that might be problematic, said Neeraj Gupta, director of product research unfiltered “brutal truth” comments

she hears from her colleagues who
bring buyers to see the property. That
way, the message gets delivered with
less risk to her cordial relationship
with the sellers.
“I will never be the kind that will
come out and tell you that your
house smells like cat litter or mothballs,” she said. “I would rip my
tongue out first.”
The two most common sources of
offensive odors are pets and
cigarettes; neither of which, Gupta
said, is easy to remediate.
The first line of defense in any
smelly situation is to remove the
problem’s source, even if that means
a beloved pet must board elsewhere
for a while.
“If the pet is in the house, you’re
introducing new odor every day,”

Gupta said.
Cat urine can seep into carpet
fibers, carpet padding, concrete and
wood floors, upholstery fabrics, and
furniture cushions and pillows.
“Oftentimes,” he said, “you have to
remove the carpet, remove the pad
and seal the floor, and then replace
the carpet and the pad.”
Cleaning the carpet might help.
But humidity will raise the odor from
the padding or floor beneath.
Cigarette smoke can cling to furnishings, drapes and other window

coverings and work its way inside
walls. Some topically applied solutions can reduce the stench, but an
ozone generator, hydroxyl generator
or air scrubber should be more effective, Gupta said. These approaches
are “very effective in absorbing
odors,” he said, though there is no
guarantee that an odor can be eliminated completely.
One more tip: If someone suffers a
long illness or dies in a home, a good
airing may be adequate to remove
odors. In the case of a violent death,
however, professionals who handle
what’s known as “trauma cleanup”
should be called. The cost might
range from a few hundred dollars to
at least $1,000, depending on the
type of remediation and the square
footage.
“If you have that type of situation,”
Gupta said, “it’s probably best to call
a professional. It may be traumatic
for you to do it yourself.”